Cusco & Machu Picchu
Peru
An Inca capital at 3,400m, and the citadel below it
Photo by Eddie Kiszka on Unsplash
Photos by Eddie Kiszka, Eddie Kiszka, Ed Wingate and Victor He on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Peru
May to September (dry season)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 163mm in Jan
Where it is
13.16°S, 72.55°W Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Weeks of it- Walk the citadel early before the day-trippers arrive
- Climb Huayna Picchu if you booked it months ahead
- Spend a day in the Sacred Valley at Pisac and Ollantaytambo
- Wander San Blas for the artisan workshops
- See the Qorikancha, where the Inca temple and the convent are one building
Cusco & Machu Picchu travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Peru
Good valueCambistas on Avenida El Sol give better rates than the banks and are licensed — look for the vest and the ID. Dollars are widely accepted but at a poor built-in rate. Break large notes early; nobody in Aguas Calientes has change for a 200.
ATMs & cards
BCP, Interbank and BBVA machines around the Plaza de Armas are reliable. Avoid the Globalnet machines in shops — they charge the most and cap the lowest. Carry cash for Aguas Calientes, where cards are patchy and fees are high.
Avoid these
- Globalnet machines in shops and hostels
- anything in Aguas Calientes
Use these instead
- BCP
- Interbank
- BBVA
- Scotiabank
Withdraw in Cusco before the train. Aguas Calientes has almost no card acceptance and the machines there charge the most in Peru.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Peru
SafeCrime against visitors is rare and the tourist centre is heavily policed. Altitude is the real hazard: Cusco sits at 3,400m and people who fly straight in and start walking get properly ill. Give it two days before any trek, drink far more water than feels necessary, and take the coca tea seriously — it helps.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (6 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Altitude, which is the actual danger at 3,400m — arrive and do nothing for a day
- San Cristóbal, Cusco — walking down alone at night
- Unlicensed trek operators on the Salkantay and Inca trails
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Peru visa rules
No visa neededup to 90 days
Days granted are at the officer’s discretion and often fewer than 90. Machu Picchu entry is separately ticketed and capped daily — that is the booking that actually needs planning.
Other passports
Visa required in advance
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Peru
Good but costlyRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate, but only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
- Yellow fever if you are going to the Amazon
- Rabies for rural or long stays
Getting treated
Private clinics in Lima are good and reasonably priced; outside the capital and the main tourist towns, facilities thin out quickly. Insurance with evacuation cover is worth having if you are heading into the Andes or the Amazon.
Altitude sickness is the most common problem for visitors heading to Cusco (3,400m) — ascend slowly and do not fly straight to a trek. Do not drink the tap water.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodEat the menú del día at lunch — soup, main and drink for 15-25 soles. Try cuy if you are curious, alpaca if you are hungry, and chicha morada with everything.
Nightlife
A bar street off the main square that runs on backpackers, pisco sours and 3,400 metres of altitude.
- Plaza de Armas, Cusco — the balcony bars around the square
- San Blas — the quieter, prettier bars uphill
- Calle Procuradores — the strip everyone ends up on
Closing: 03:00.
A beer in a bar: PEN 10–18
Alcohol at 3,400m hits differently and dehydrates you before a trek — the first night is the wrong one for a big one.
Getting around
Workable- UberWorks here
- DiDiWorks here
- CabifyWorks here
- inDriveWorks here
- BoltNot here
- Against a taxi
- Much cheaper than a street taxi, and much safer than one hailed outside an airport — which is the standing advice countrywide.
Time zone and your working day
America/Lima — 1 hour behind you
7 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 10:00–17:00 your time, 09:00–16:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 10:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 10:00–18:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Peru
Why these are Peru's numbers and not Cusco & Machu Picchu's
Home broadband — Fast. Several people on calls at once, large uploads, 4K. Broadband here runs at 2× the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fair. Maps, calls and streaming; tethering a laptop works for an hour, not a day. Mobile runs at 57% of the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Cusco & Machu Picchu, so these are medians for all of Peru. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Peru, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Spanish (Latin American)
- HelloHolaOH-la
- PleasePor favorpor fa-VOR
- Thank youGraciasGRA-syas
- Yes / NoSí / Nosee / no
4 more phrases
- Excuse meDisculpedees-KOOL-peh
- How much is it?¿Cuánto cuesta?KWAN-to KWES-ta
- The bill, pleaseLa cuenta, por favorla KWEN-ta
- Cheers!¡Salud!sa-LOOD
The c and z are said as an s here, not the Spanish "th" — gracias is GRA-syas.
Religion
Catholic
Catholicism fused with Andean belief — the Inti Raymi festival and mountain apu spirits sit alongside the church calendar without contradiction.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Greet with a handshake, or a cheek kiss once you know someone
- Try the food seriously — Peruvians are proud of it and interest is warmly returned
- Ask before photographing people in traditional dress, and expect to pay a small amount
- Take altitude slowly if you continue to Cusco; coca tea genuinely helps
Don't
- Do not eat ceviche in the evening; the fish is that morning’s catch and locals eat it at lunch
- Do not drink the tap water
- Do not hail street taxis; use an app
- Do not call the country’s cuisine Mexican-adjacent, which will not go well
Where to stay in Cusco & Machu Picchu
No Holistay rentals in Cusco & Machu Picchu yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Cusco & Machu Picchu on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Alejandro Velasco Astete CUZ
15 minfrom the airport, roughly
15 min to the centre, then the train to Aguas Calientes.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
